The present disclosure relates to a system and method for locating and using a peripheral device. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a system and method for locating a peripheral device, determining its functionality, and wirelessly communicating with the device to make use of the device.
From time to time, persons in unfamiliar office environments wish to use peripheral devices within the environment. For instance, a person may wish to print data that is stored in a portable computing device such as a notebook computer or personal digital assistants (PDAs). To cite a specific example, a salesperson that is making a presentation to a potential customer at the customer""s premises may wish to print out various documents and distribute them to various employees of the customer. In such a situation, it may be difficult for the salesperson to locate a printer that both is capable of receiving data transmitted from the portable computing device and that supports the particular functionality that the sender may desire (e.g., paper size, color printing, collating, stapling, etc.).
Although known locator protocols such as global positioning systems (GPS) can be utilized to locate peripheral devices, implementation of such protocols requires the portable computing device and peripheral devices to be equipped with locator devices and may further require payment for the provision of a location service (e.g., for satellite usage). Clearly, the costs involved in such an arrangement is are prohibitively high. In addition, even though the person can potentially locate one or more peripheral devices in this manner, this method does not provide the user with information as to whether the peripheral devices support the particular functionality the person is seeking.
From the above, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a relatively simple system and method with which a person can locate one or more peripheral devices and determine the functional capabilities of the devices so that the person can determine whether he or she wishes to use the devices.
The present disclosure relates to a system and method for locating and using a peripheral device. The method comprises the steps of wirelessly transmitting an initial communication with a computing device, awaiting an audible signal from a peripheral device identifying its location, and wirelessly transmitting data to the peripheral device with the computing device.
In one embodiment, the system comprises means for wirelessly transmitting an initial communication from a computing device to the peripheral device, means for emitting an audible signal from the peripheral device upon receipt of the initial wireless communication from the computing device, and means for wirelessly transmitting data from the computing device to the peripheral device. In another embodiment, the system comprises logic configured to wirelessly transmit an initial communication from a computing device to the peripheral device, logic configured to emit an audible signal from the peripheral device upon receipt of the initial wireless communication from the computing device, and logic configured to wirelessly transmit data from the computing device to the peripheral device.
Other features, systems, methods, and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.